Hot coffee beverages are widely consumed throughout the world and are generally prepared from roasted coffee alone or in combination with such other roasted plant material such as chicory. It has been found that the majority of consumers who are used to the taste imparted by beverages prepared by brewing 100% coffee material do not find the taste of beverages prepared from composites of coffee and other extractable materials to be acceptable. A large number of these consumers would be desirous of purchasing brewable beverage compositions which could be priced significantly less than 100% roasted coffee products and which might also contain significantly lower amounts of caffeine than pure coffee products, provided these compositions could yield a brewed beverage closely resembling brewed coffee.
Prior attempts to combine roasted coffee with significant amounts of roasted cereal grains have resulted in brewed beverages which have unacceptable high levels of cereal taste notes. It would, therefore, be desirable if a product could be formulated which could combine roasted coffee with relatively low-cost roasted cereal material and which would not yield a cereal note on brewing. This would be particularly desirable if this result could be effected without resort to synthetic flavor materials.